Avoid Emachines!

In the last 3 or 4 months I have seen numerous posts by people with problems with emachines. These are some of the most cheaply made and shoddy quality computers around. They are similiar in poor quality to some alienware models (now bought by DELL). It is interesting to note emachines is buying Gateway. So you may need to avoid Gateways in the future.

Please save yourself a headache and avoid emachines. I have seen quite a few posts regarding blown-out PSUs (taking motherboards along with it), shoddy motherboards, bad auxillary components, etc....

You get what you pay for. Super cheap = super poor quality. Save yourself the trouble and spend a few extra dollars for a more reliable brand or better yet, build a computer yourself - it's not that hard to do, and you can save a few bucks and learn about computers in the process.

You get what you pay for. Super cheap = super poor quality. Save yourself the trouble and spend a few extra dollars for a more reliable brand or better yet, build a computer yourself - it's not that hard to do, and you can save a few bucks and learn about computers in the process.

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I agree with you completely. In my opinion I would avoid any OEM systems because although it may have reasonable specs, you dont know wether the hardware is manufactured by reliable brands or not.

Of course, the best thing to do is build yourself a pc. Second best would be getting a smallish computer store to custom build it for you.

I really should make a thread which outlines what brands pf particular parts are good/bad. Actually, I think I'll do that now

yes most OEM machines are cheap, but Emachines have been at the top of the list here at techspot for poor quality for quite some time. I seldom see much complaints about other systems, but Emachine problems are almost posted on a daily basis.

You aren't just whistlin' dixie about those EMachines! The thing was crap when it was gifted to me and there have been numerous problems with it. Oh and you can buy one at Walmart now too.lol I vowed:approve: to never own one again!!! BUT when it fried I felt like I was at a loss:unch: So I need to fix it. Although we have a laptop and a desktop, the Emachine, as crappy as it was, was a gift. I will be sure to give the gifter my opinionpuke:. Have a wonderful day!

I agree about avoiding Emachines, but many of my customer's are disabled or elderly. I may need to remind you fellow techies that these folks don't have much money. Many need to be congratulated for buying a computer in the first place. I have been able to replace motherboards and power supplies to get these lesser systems up and running reliably for under $150, and the customer's are very happy with their refubished computers

I have an eMachine T2080 I've been handing down to the kids. It's around 5 years old now. There is nothing on that system that is proprietary. The only part that has ever been replaced is the PSU. And I added an AGP Video card and raised the DDR to a GB. It has been running non stop now for almost a year. It's no performance bruiser especially with an ECS mobo, but the Athlon XP 2000+ is still capable of running anything the web throws at it. computer, 512mb's of DDR, 80GB HD CD-RW and DVD ROM's and the AMD CPU, keyboard, mouse, 17"monitor, and speakers for under $500 And they threw in an HP deskjet.

This isn't the only forums I haunt, and if I was going to pick a problem product, that I see more than anything else, it would be Asus mobos. Not that they are bad, but mostly not user friendly unless you have a bit more skill than a beginner and can understand the depth and complexity of their BIOS settings. As for stability I wouldn't hesitate to recommend an eMachine to someone who is looking for a value entry level system. I sure wouldn't recommend a Dell. Or a Compaq. This all, of course, falls under the IMO category.

I just replaced an Emachines for a customer, with a custom-built Intel Celeron D MSI configuration all for $350. I also have a Sony Vaio PCG-FRV37 in for repair. The CD/DVD R/W, DC power jack and the dual cooling fan assembly need to be replaced. These parts alone are $320

My eMachines was trouble from the word go, but, the worst was the lack of support. I found out here that the USB on-board card reader was a known issue. The Windows XP ghosted on the machine had errors which mostly went away when I created my own install disk, and then installed all the drivers separately. Now my bios is dead-ish. I have neighbours with 3 e-Machines and not one problem. Go figure. I have a 5 year-old Cicero (Future Shop built) that is so stable its frightening. I think I have seen only 1 blue screen in all the years I have owned it and it had a pre-release of XP on it.

I have one good thing to say though. Without this experience I would never have dreamed of opening the cover on my computer, never mind changing out components, learning about slipstreaming, or what a FSB was. So thank you eMachines for an education I never really wanted, but am glad I now have courtesy in no small part to Techspot.

I have an eMachine T2080 I've been handing down to the kids. It's around 5 years old now. There is nothing on that system that is proprietary. The only part that has ever been replaced is the PSU. And I added an AGP Video card and raised the DDR to a GB. It has been running non stop now for almost a year. It's no performance bruiser especially with an ECS mobo, but the Athlon XP 2000+ is still capable of running anything the web throws at it. computer, 512mb's of DDR, 80GB HD CD-RW and DVD ROM's and the AMD CPU, keyboard, mouse, 17"monitor, and speakers for under $500 And they threw in an HP deskjet.

This isn't the only forums I haunt, and if I was going to pick a problem product, that I see more than anything else, it would be Asus mobos. Not that they are bad, but mostly not user friendly unless you have a bit more skill than a beginner and can understand the depth and complexity of their BIOS settings. As for stability I wouldn't hesitate to recommend an eMachine to someone who is looking for a value entry level system. I sure wouldn't recommend a Dell. Or a Compaq. This all, of course, falls under the IMO category.

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When I bought my T2200, it was not just another "cheap" model.
I bought only the tower at CompUSA and the price was about $700 in the spring of 2003. It has a 1.8 GHz AMD Athlon Processor and it came with 512 MB of DDR Memory and a 100GB WD Hard drive. I really never had any trouble with it until the board died.

Have you found any replacement boards with a 462 pin Socket A made by ECS recently? I was hoping to find one so I could use my restore CD's or I will lose my XP O/S also. I was wondering if any boards could still be used with those restore discs without having to go back to EMachines to buy one.

Your CD will work on any ECS or PCChips mobo, provided they are using a VIA chipset. I just bought a 200GB HD (Maxtor) for the one I mentioned above, that the kids are using at their house. Wanting the eMachines OS already installed when I gave it to him, I installed it on my system which is running a Core2 Dual E6400 and a VIA P4M800-M chipset. I stopped the install just before the last reboot, then installed and let it finish on his, which is using an Athlon 2000XP and an ECS L7VMM mobo. No problems. Unlike some makers, notably Compaq, the install of the OS is not dependent on info on the BIOS chip, so you don't need an "official" eMachines mobo for it to work.

What is consistent between eMachines and Sony VAIO is that their parts prices are high, and very difficult to get. Next to the old Packard Bell, they are the two worst manufactures of computer components... not because of the failures, but because they know they will fail and do nothing to alert the buyers.
The Sony VAIO laptop is a greater disaster than the old Compaqs. The eMachines laptops are now showing how failure prone they can be.
Quality is not important. Marketing is. IBM/Lenova, the upper third of Gateway, the upper third of Dell, and the upper half of HP are OK for reliability. Not many other are.
They could all learn from the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad, Netvista, Intellistation models for excellence.

Sorry I have to disagree with you. At least how it relates to mine. Nothing in the system was proprietary. The power supply can be replaced by a standard ATX PSU, the mobos can be replaced by any ECS or PCChips board. The hard drive was a seagate. The only ting I considered crappy were the speakers. The keyboard and mouse were OK, and I'm still using the monitor.

True.
Only the power switches, the motherboard, the power supply, the network interface, and the warranty were defective. The modem, memory, and hard drive remained good... well at least until the electrical shorts in the motherboard ruined the hard drive and the CPU and the Memory, then you still had the hard drive... which you could not access because you no longer had a way to use the eMachines restore discs, to you had to put the drive in another machin with another version of Windows XP.
But that was minor... you still had the hard drive and the case.
Yes that was only a minor inconvenience.... NO OTHER COMPUTER MANUFACTURER HAS HAD SO MANY TOTALLY DESTRUCTIVE FAILURES. None.
So disagree all you want, but provide better evidence.
The motherboard, because of the tattoo, is proprietary. You cannot access your information except at considerable expense... you cannot replace the board except by purchasing another from eMachines (which will also eventually fail) for $159.95 to $221.95, plus shipping.
The hard drives in the eMachine are NOT all Seagates. Most are Tri-Gems, some are Fujitsu, some are Samsung, some are Maxtor, and a few are Western Digital.
The speakers are not bad compared to how totally the rest of the system fails.
For the average person who is not a computer tech, this is a disaster... some spend $150 to find out it can never be fixed... can never work again.
It sounds as if you eMachines experience is very limited, and you have not seen these poor people on a budget see their dreams dashed by an incompetent or crooked vendor.